What’s up with AmericaBlog’s attacks on so many progressives?
Lately, I’m finding AmericaBlog filled with an elitism that knows no bounds.
In addition to the recitation of stereotypes about his critical commenters (they must be poor, they envy me), he’s promulgating what sure strikes me as a modified DLC line, as he attacks the special interest groups that Kos and Jerome Armstrong defined in ‘Crashing the Gates’.
As a progressive, I’m fully aware of small subsets of extremists whose efforts get overplayed by critics who wish to promote the idea that every progressive is equally extreme. But I view the NAACP and NOW as mainstream groups, not the fringe.
I don’t think what occurred to Representative McKinney can be easily defined by those not present, which does include her view. John Aravosis even states:
Anyway, Glover and Belafonte then tell the crowd they have no idea what the facts of the case are. Nice.
Then John gives his interpretation. Based on….. what?
Glover and Belafonte showed solidarity while being honest. They refused to define what happened, letting McKinney speak for herself. John, on the other hand, is eager to translate what happened, based on his choice to believe the security guard, who must be telling the truth, because…. why?
In her published statement, she said:
Unfortunately, the Police Officer did not recognize me as a Member of Congress and a confrontation ensued. I did not have on my Congressional pin but showed the Police Officer my Congressional ID.
“I know that Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, that of thousands of others, and I appreciate the work that they do. I deeply regret that the incident occurred. I have demonstrated my support for them in the past and I continue to support them now.”
According to DrudgeReport.com, the entire incident is on tape.
Drudge said, “The cop is pressing charges, and the USCP (United States Capitol Police) are waiting until Congress adjourns to arrest her, a source claims.”
Whatever Rep. McKinney has done previously, expressing a few thoughts shared by many Americans, in this instance, she acted spontaneously to being grabbed, and her statement of (1) deep regret for the occurrence, and (2) support for the police, hardly seems extremist.
Defining herself as a black woman is hardly extremism. It’s not playing the race card to define the prism of experience through which she’s forced to define what’s happening to her at any given moment.
In 2006, we’re facing a Congressional campaign and the GOP has naught but a sorry record to run on, and a bankrupt imagination that offers no better answers for tomorrow. Seeking to overcome the debacles of Iraq, the attack on Social Security, an economy with inflation outrunning the wages of most, an illegal wiretapping program, a concerted effort to attack whistleblowers and critics, a disastrous Medicare plan that reeks of the same corruption and cronyism that has defined Iraq, Enron, oil profits and gas prices, port insecurity, etc & etc, this GOP has retrenched and diverted the nation’s attention to xenophobic and classist terms of divisiveness, beginning with the immigration debate.
Well, it’s true that the majority of voters are white. And fanning the flames of xenophobia, and racism is a proven way to draw the bigoted whites to the polls. Maybe Mr. Aravosis believes the counter to that is to demonstrate that progressives like him can discern between true claims of discrimination and false ones. Frankly, I don’t know what his motives are.
But I don’t think it’s so easy to define what Cynthia McKinney has experienced and diminish her response as unreasonable without walking a hundred miles in her shoes. If it is easy to do, then what is Aravosis claiming as her motive? Did she respond to being grabbed because of some devious plan? No, the catch-all of ’she’s cuckoo’ will suffice.
Here’s where I think overly tunnel-visioned activist-analysts get it wrong. They make many choices based on political strategy then project that predilection on everyone else. And most people act and react without viewing their choices through a political lens.
Isn’t it possible Representative McKinney was simply focused on her phone conversation, that she was oblivious to things around her until her train of thought was interrupted by the grab, and that she responded instinctively to that?
Ultimately, I consider the incident to be a blip on the radar screen of the nation’s concern. For a white racist aware of it, it’s likely to reinforce their racist views. For a woman or a black voter, it’s likely to reinforce their own experiences of being singled out for being black and/or female.
So I don’t understand why John Aravosis decided to launch a tirade about something like this. Is it part of a strategy to try and disassociate progressives from the special interest groups that Zuniga and Armstrong believe have hurt the Democratic Party? Again, I don’t know.
I can only speak for myself. I’m in favor of a safe, sound, free and principled United States because it’s my home. While some view the actions of political parties to be the way to achieve those goals, I don’t. It’s far more important how I act. It’s far more important that I engage my family and neighbors and community in discussions and mutually supportive actions that put my beliefs in action. And I believe if enogh people do that, the political parties will have to learn and catch up to what masses of people want.
Parties are not our leaders. Occasionally, real leaders emerge that can lead people and parties alike. I have not been persuaded to the view that Aravosis is one of those leaders. While he dismisses hard workers in pursuit of justice as incapable of enjoying life, he overlooks the fact that people enjoy life in different ways, and small victories for justice are sufficient enjoyments in themselves.
I fear Mr. Aravosis is missing the forest for the trees. Cynthia McKinney may have weaknesses, too, that I might disapprove if I were a voter in her district and had to judge her to determine how I’d vote. But I’m not. I’m quite willing to wait to see if a trial occurs and the judgment that results.
And in the meantime, the fact that NAACP and NOW supports her doesn’t cause me to believe those organizations are wrong or extreme. They are advocacy groups, doing what advocacy groups do. And they have pretty good records of advocating for a society that’s free and just.
If that’s a ’special’ interest, it’s pretty special, to me.
April 1st, 2006 at 11:54 am
Amen. (Americablog is off in numers ways). No help in true fight against Bush Junta.
I, of course, am not able to prove it, but it seems an intentional “left gatekeeper”. Or pershaps, a Dem gatekeeper.
April 1st, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Sorry, but I’m with John on this. McKinney is doing great harm to blacks by equating what happened to her with racism, harm to women (especially those who suffer from sexual harrasment or worse) by her riduculous framing of what the officer did as “inappropriate touching”, and harm to all of us who try to fight for justice by triviaizing our concerns by associating them with her little hissy fit. She makes herself, and thus all of us who usually support her, into laughingstocks, and makes it ever so easy for all our future concerns to be easily dismissed.
NOW and NAACP seem clearly to be supporting her because she is on “our team”. I don’t buy into that strategy - if you cant bring yourself to call obvious bullshit on your own team, then you forfeit any credibility in calling it on the other side. They, and the folks in the middle, will see you for what you are, a fighter for a team, not for any priniciples.
April 1st, 2006 at 4:40 pm
I don’t think anyone who wasn’t there can have the full story on what happened to McKinney, but I from what I read of John A, it appears as though he’s finding himself straddling the line between the liberal blogosphere and professional Washington insiders and seeming to want to have both - and at this point I don’t know that this is doable for him. I think something’s got to give, and what will probably decide it is money, which as Cindy Lauper noted “changes everything.”
April 1st, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Elayne, I suspect you’re correct. And Tano: Representative McKinney’s record of unusual treatment at the hands of capitol police was covered by Josh Marshall, and goes back many years.
Also, if someone grabs you and you turn and swing, that’s consistent with instinctive reaction as opposed to a deliberate assault. I still think it’s mostly a tempest in a teapot and Aravosis’ reasons for jumping in remain a mystery.
April 1st, 2006 at 8:03 pm
Kevin,
You avoid the real issue. Perhaps McKinney was not wrong to strike out at someone grabbing her, but if thats how it went down, this whole thing could have been resolved in a few seconds. The cop, understanding who she was, apologizes. McKinney, understanding that she was at fault for not having her pin, and that the cop was just doing his job, apologizes as well. Wouldn’t that be what any normal person (like you or I) would do? A tempest in a teapot no doubt, but McKinney is doing her part to make that tempest. It is the outrageous statements that she has been making since than that are the gist of John’s complaint, and my agreement.
April 1st, 2006 at 9:00 pm
There’s something else going on with John Aravosis and his Cynthia McKinney post and I wouldn’t put “proving something to someone” far from the top of the list. We’ll eventually know more about this McKinney episode; finding out why John did what he did may prove harder to fathom. That sounds cryptic, I know, but D.C. is all about “wheels within wheels.”
April 1st, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Capitol Hill police are well schooled in identifying members of Congress on site. My husband was a doorman immediately after his college days and he was required to know each and every member by name and site.
I wonder why the Capitol police can’t handle what doormen can.
And the police officer assaulted her when he grabbed her arm. Public figures are not strangers to getting grabbed. Usually it is by someone who is getting dangerously aggressive. No wonder she punched him.
Perhaps it was a misunderstanding. But because McKinney has pissed off folks in D.C. before she doesn’t have support and sympathy.
Why does anyone who wasn’t there feel the need or the ability to write about an incident they didn’t see?
Drudge is an ass and why anyone reads him much less responds to his typing in his lonely little room, I don’t know.
April 2nd, 2006 at 3:50 am
Isn’t it possible Representative McKinney was simply focused on her phone conversation, that she was oblivious to things around her until her train of thought was interrupted by the grab, and that she responded instinctively to that?
Cops and investigators have a saying. “You don’t forget to do what you always remember to do.” She was entering her place of business which was a daily routine for her. When I get out of my truck to open up in the morning, whether I’m on the phone or not, habit forces me to take the keys out of my bag by the time I get to the front door. I’m going with Jaye’s comment that it was a misunderstanding all around and everybody overreacted. As for Aravosis, let’s not be too quick to forget what he’s done for the cause over the past few years.
April 2nd, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Read what the GOP did to her in Georgia first. Then put this incident into context.
April 2nd, 2006 at 7:16 pm
I assume Aravosis is attacking her because she’s a lefty and he is a conservative. He is a conservative. So is Kos. In fact it’s amazing how many of the top bloggers in the so-called progressive blogosphere are conservative Democrats.
I remember when Aravosis dismissed the American coup of Haiti by saying Haitians should be grateful for America replacing their super-majority elected president and replacing him with thugs.
When you think about it there are no “A” list lefty blogs. Instead you’d have to go to a website like CounterPunch. At least there’s Maryscott O’Connor and some of the dKos frontpagers are more lefty these days. Of course Armando is even further to the Right than dKos and Aravosis.
As with Dr Dean the lefties are often swept along with the enthusiasm of progressives for anyone who shows a spine against Bushco regardless of whether they are progressive, left or really rather conservative. The cracks are papered over and Lefties are taught to support and appreciate voices that are often contradictory of our core values. Values such as anti-war.
I wonder how much longer that alliance of center-Right / progressives / Lefties can hold together once Bush is gone. of course the center-Right, as this example amply demonstrates have never let up attacking the left. The compromise has always been one way.
The Left needs a stronger blog presence. *Sigh* yet another reason for my not being able to move on from American Street (I feel guilty because I ought to be moving on and reading other blogs). Arguably the most far left blog, or blog tolerable of lefty views that there is out there. More so than MLW or Liberal Street Fighter or any of the feminist blogs — all of which would have banned me for my views on gender equality, or else some other issue where I, like Cynthia McKinney, am an embarassment to Democrats.